We love Simon Pegg. We love Star Wars . We also loved Spaced , which sees Simon taking a torch to his Star Wars memorabilia because he hates George Lucas' prequel trilogy so much.

The minute JJ Abrams was announced as the director of Star Wars: Episode VII, we prayed to the maker that Pegg hadn't burned his🐠 chances of appearing in it along wꦆith his Jar Jar plushie.

But what's that in the di▨stance? Cause for optimism? Help us, Benedict Cumberbatch; you're our only hope.

Asked if he would want to appear in JJ's Star Wars Universe, Cumberbatch said: "J.J. and I are friends, so yeah, possibly. But I think J.J. is very good at creating something original out of something known, and I think apart from his continuing use of Simon Pegg — and who can blame🃏 him, frankly — it made sense not to do it."

Wait, what? Continuing use of Simon Pegg? In Mission Impossible , Star Trek and… Star Wars ?

Before y𓆏ou get too excited, Pegg's denying it. From a certain point of view. "Well, J.J. uses me in different ro🐲les, and we’re good friends. I feel like my face in Star Wars would pop people out of the movie. Look, I love Star Wars, and I don’t want people to watch and go, Oh, there’s Simon Pegg’s face. The film is cleverly cast with these amazing, unknown actors."

But what if Simon's face is hi🔴dde🍒n behind alien make-up? Or a cool mask? Or a MANDALORIAN HELMET?

Sorry, sorry, we got over-excited.

But still, this does give us ( A New ) hope there'll be lovely surprise for Simon Pegg fans in Episode VII .